A Hazard of Having a House Elf
by Hermy-Weasley2
Summary: Pure fluff between Harry and Ginny...and Kreacher. How long can that elf live any way? DH spoilers. There's an open ending for a reason, so no assumptions..Hopefully funny, rated cautiously


A/n: Just a little fluff between Harry and Ginny…and Kreacher. How long can that elf live anyway? And I'm assuming that Teddy spends a lot of time with them so Icounted him as one of "the kids."

The kids were finally asleep and Ginny was ready to collapse into bed herself. Harry was on trip to Romania on be hath of the Ministry and had flooed earlier to tell her he didn't know if he'd be able to make it home that night or not.

And so began the process of wrangling the kids into bed, but finally all three of them, including a teething Albus, were sound asleep. The other problem was it was laundry day and Ginny was just too exhausted to even know where to begin with cleaning them, even magically.

Kreacher heard her mumbling to herself about it and popped to her. "Does Mistress need any help?"

"Kreacher, you like to cook, not wash clothes."

"Yes, Kreacher likes to cook, but Mistress is tired and here by herself. Mistress needs Kreacher's help. It would be Kreacher's pleasure." He gave a short, polite bow.

"All right Kreacher, you can do the kids' clothes," Ginny began.

"Kreacher will do them all. Mistress should get to bed."

"Kreacher—"

"Mistress needs to sleep. Kreacher doesn't mind."

"Oh, all right Kreacher," Ginny gave up and started up the stairs. She couldn't even wait on Kreacher to finish the laundry. Not wanting to sleep in her jeans and robes, she peaked into the closet of the master bedroom. All that was left were a few sets of her dress robes, an old winter cloak and one of Harry's button-down shirts.

She pulled out the shirt and threw it down on her bed and slipped out of her robes, T-shirt, jeans and bra. The shirt was big enough for her to slip over head without undoing the buttons. She slipped into the adjoining bathroom, brushed her teeth and then collapsed into bed in the shirt and her panties.

It was around one o'clock in the morning when Harry Apparated into his kitchen. There was a small sound of snoring coming from the laundry room and when Harry poked his head in and murmured "Lumos" he saw Kreacher sound asleep in front of clean, folded clothes. He decided not to disturb the little elf and started upstairs.

When he reached his bedroom, he lighted his wand again but tried to stifle it when he saw his wife asleep, but it was too late. Somewhere under her fiery red hair her head was turning towards him.

"Harry?" she whispered. "Why are you here at this time of night?" She was sitting up now, her lithe body folded in his shirt. He couldn't help but smile as he climbed into bed next to her.

"We just finished negotiations with the dragon reserve about an hour ago. Then I talked with Charlie for a while," Harry answered. "I like your new taste in lingerie." He kissed the nape of her neck and she giggled sleepily.

"I was exhausted. Kreacher offered to do all of the clothes and I just couldn't refuse. The kids just did not want to go to bed today.'

"Hmmm…I saw him asleep down there," Harry told her, wrapping an arm around her waist and using it to prop himself up.

"Oh the poor thing," Ginny cooed. "At his age he still wants to help so much."

"I told him he's free to go," Harry commented. Ginny gave a little noise to indicate she knew what he meant. He traced his eyes up and down her body as if he'd never seen it before. She caught the look in his and kissed him as he made it back to her face. She let herself fall back and pulled him back with her. The shirt fell on her body so that all her curves were just visible underneath.

"Ah, Gin, poor Kreacher will just have more clothes to wash," Harry teased as his lips moved to her neck.

"He'll be all right," Ginny answered. "I won't make him work tomorrow. I didn't make him do anything today."

They kissed again and Harry moved down to her chest to unbutton his shirt she wore..Just as he shed his own robes, there was a click at the door.

Harry and Ginny both froze and glanced towards the door. The old house elf was walking behind a stack of clean clothes, mumbling to himself, "Kreacher shouldn't have fallen asleep. Not good, not good at all—"

He had dropped the clothes and in the light from the candles in the hallway, he could see Harry and Ginny frozen on their bed staring back at him. His old eyes got even bigger and he scrambled out the bedroom door as fast as he could saying all the time, "So sorry. Kreacher's oh so sorry! Shouldn't have—Kreacher should've knocked!"

The old elf slammed the door behind him and they could hear scampering down the hall and, suddenly, a baby cried somewhere beyond. They both looked back at each other and broke down in hilarious laughter. Ginny pulled her dressing gown out of Kreacher's stack and went to check on Albus. As she left she turned back to Harry.

"I told him he could go any time he wants," Harry said pointedly, but he and Ginny were both still smiling nervously.

"I love you," Ginny called from the hall.

"Yeah, well, hurry up with the baby, will you? We might want to get started on another one."


End file.
